Giovanni Battista Paggi

Who was Giovanni Battista Paggi?

Giovanni Battista Paggi was an Italian painter of the Late-Renaissance and early-Baroque.

He was born in Genoa into the well-to-do family of his father Pellegrino. In an apparent dispute over pay, he is said to have mortally wounded a patron, and was forced to flee Genoa in 1579, and take refuge in Tuscany, in the towns of Aulla sul Magra, then Pisa, and finally to Florence. He joined the Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno in 1568, and shared workspace in Florence with Federico Zuccari. He returned to Genoa as early as 1590, but not permanently till 1599 under the protection of the Doria family.

He is known as one of the followers of the style and briefly pupil of Luca Cambiasi and the teacher of Giulio Benso, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Sinibaldo Scorza, Domenico Fiasella, and Giovanni Andrea Podesta. Other sources cite Scorza, Luciano Borzone, Giulio Benso Bernardo Castello, Giovanni Domenico Cappellino, and Agostino & Giovanni Battista Montanari as his pupils.